Two days later, Pang Wanchun personally led 20,000 elite troops as the vanguard to the gates of Suzhou City, and then he saw an incredible and shocking scene -
There are already many defenders standing at the top of the Suzhou city, ready for battle. There are swords, guns and arrows standing there like a forest. People will feel frightened when they look at it from a distance. With just a cursory glance, he has already reached the top of the city. There were actually five to six thousand troops deployed. If possible backup troops were added, the city's defenders were no longer under the forward troops.
What surprised him even more was a large flag with the word "Sun" flying high at the top of the city. This was a general flag that he was very familiar with recently, and it was Sun Tu's flag. This made Pang Wanchun's expression change again: "How could Sun Tu appear here? Or is this just their bluffing strategy?" He really couldn't believe that the Changshu defenders would defend the city without the commander-in-chief of the three armies, and fought to the death many times. Repel his full onslaught.
How to act now? An extremely critical issue has been placed in front of Pang Wanchun. According to his previous plan, since he personally led the forwards to attack Suzhou, he naturally wanted to take Suzhou back immediately. But judging from the current defense of Suzhou City, a forced attack is likely to hit a wall here and suffer heavy losses.
But Pang Wanchun was more aware of the consequences of delaying it. When the Song army from Changshu arrived to respond, and even the Song army from Jinling broke their tacit agreement and sent troops brazenly after learning about the situation in Suzhou, the battle around Suzhou City became more and more intense. It's tough.
After rapidly weighing and thinking in his mind, he finally made up his mind: "Send the order to the three armies to launch an attack on the North City of Suzhou immediately. We must concentrate all our forces to take down this gate first!" To be honest, even if the facts are obvious, Looking in front of him, Pang Wanchun still couldn't believe that the Song army could recruit thousands or even tens of thousands of troops to defend the city in just a few days after capturing Suzhou. In his opinion, the seemingly majestic defenders at the top of the city were mostly forced to attack. As long as ordinary people in the city attack with their own troops, the defenders will inevitably be in chaos and collapse!
Until now, he believed that the number of Song troops who could quietly move south from under his nose must be small, maybe only a few hundred. How could they possibly defend such a big city like Suzhou
When Pang Shuai's orders and guesses were given, the Wu army soldiers who were still a little panic quickly calmed down and immediately launched the first wave of offensive against the Suzhou city gate amidst the sound of drums and trumpets.
Sun Tu, who had already seen the enemy troops approaching in the city, just smiled lightly when he saw this. Under his orders, the newly recruited sergeants also began to act in an orderly manner. When the enemy rushed to the bottom of the city, bows, arrows, wood and rocks and other defensive weapons fell like raindrops, killing the enemy and causing them to scream repeatedly, and the forward momentum was immediately curbed.
This Suzhou city is not comparable to a small county town like Changshu. The city wall here is twice as large as the county town. In addition, with a variety of complete city defense weapons, you can attack the enemies below as if they are free, even if the city defenders They are just people who have not fought much, and their lethality is not much weaker than the elite of the Shandong Army. Moreover, as the enemies continued to fall, the soldiers who were still a little uneasy now relaxed their hands and feet, and the attack range of arrows and stones was also wider, causing more casualties to the Wu army.
Wu Jun, who was already physically exhausted due to his fast march, became even more mentally unstable after facing such tough resistance. He did not even wait for Pang Wan.
Chun ordered the troops to withdraw, and they retreated in a state of embarrassment, leaving only about two hundred corpses under the city, but they could not even touch the walls of Suzhou City.
When they saw the menacing enemy actually retreating in panic, the troops on the city even let out bursts of noise and cheers, becoming more confident in defending the city. Especially when the wealthy businessmen soon brought a box full of copper coins and a large amount of wine and meat to the top of the city, and after rewarding the soldiers, the morale of the city was even more boosted, and there was a roar of cheers, which spread until a few days after the withdrawal. The Wu army in the formation.
The reason why Sun Tu was able to raise such a defensive army in a short period of time was naturally due to the strong support of a group of merchants and landlords headed by Su Mao. After agreeing to his request, these businessmen actually spent a lot of money and food to recruit the people in the city to defend the city together.
There is a saying that a brave man must be rewarded with a heavy reward. With the response of many merchants in the city and the fact that some of Wu Jun's own actions were not very popular with the people, Sun Tucai assembled such a team of tens of thousands of people to guard Suzhou City. .
Of course, the combat effectiveness of such an army composed mostly of ordinary people is naturally far inferior to that of the Wu army, which has already established a large scale and structure. However, if it is used to defend the city, as long as it obeys the dispatch orders and there is a city to rely on, it is not enough. enough.
Moreover, Sun Tu had another motive for recruiting people to defend the city together. Seeing the Wu army retreating, he immediately went down to the city, summoned Su Mao and some famous old people in the city, and asked: "I How many of those people you are looking for have arrived?”
"Returning to General Sun, I actually don't have many young people in Suzhou who have been dragged away by the rebels. So far, they have only found two to three hundred families. I don't know if they are enough..." Su Mao said with some uncertainty. They did put a lot of thought into it, but the results were not ideal.
Sun Tu smiled and said, "That's enough. As long as they do what I tell them, even a hundred people can do it. You can let them go to the city later. Don't worry, I will keep them safe, and I also believe it." They don’t want their children to die in vain under Suzhou City.”
Su Mao hurriedly agreed, and immediately led people to rush over there, calling all the people with anxious faces over. Most of these people were old, weak, women and children, and the clothes they wore were quite shabby. They were obviously from poor families in Suzhou city.
When Sun Tu saw this, he comforted them and promised that he would not harm them and their families if things went wrong, and would also use part of the money and food to subsidize them. This immediately made these people feel grateful, even if they were a little timid. The meaning has become much lighter.
After noon, as the drums and trumpets sounded again, the Wu army once again sent troops to attack Suzhou. Although they suffered a lot of losses under the city before, the Wu army was not really discouraged. This time the offensive was even more fierce than before.
As they rushed to the city like a wave, this time there were no arrows, wood or rocks falling on the city. This made the Wu army a little uncomfortable. Many people slowed down their pace because of this, and they were careful to be on guard for fear of coming from above. Suddenly came out some big killer weapon.
Pang Wanchun, the Chinese army in the distance, stared nervously at the Suzhou city: "What kind of medicine is the Song army selling in the gourd? Is there some trouble in the city that made them not guard the city gate?"
The answer was soon revealed, Chengtou
Suddenly, more than a hundred people appeared, and a loud voice shouted down: "Brothers Wu Jun, please wait a moment to attack. Look who are the people at the top of the city! They are my fellow citizens of Suzhou, and they are your parents. Relatives, are you planning to take action against your relatives?"
As soon as these words came out, the movements of the soldiers who were about to fire the arrows stopped, and many soldiers raised their heads to look carefully at the old or young faces above them.
At this time, an old man shouted excitedly: "San'er, San'er, are you down there? I'm your father. Don't take such risks and go against the court again. Now General Sun has promised to give my family twenty Guan Qian, all the previous things have been written off. Come back..."
After that, everyone else also found their relatives and shouted: "Huzi, it turns out you have defected to the Wu army. Before, my mother thought you had... Come back quickly, the government no longer cares about what happened before. , my family’s property has also been taken back, please don’t do anything wrong again.”
"Mr. Lang, our child is thinking of you. Don't take any more risks there and come back soon..."
The calls of relatives immediately stopped the Wu army that was rushing to the city. Many of them were so excited that they were trembling with excitement. Some had tears on their faces, and some responded loudly. This was to confirm that the city belonged to them. His father, wife and children were calling him, and they had lost their fighting spirit in an instant.
For the people of the Song Dynasty at this time, even serving as soldiers was a last resort, let alone joining the rebel ranks. Before, there was really no way to survive, so they rose up and risked their lives to find a way out. But now, with the pleading of their loved ones, these people's hearts are immediately shaken and they are about to give up.
As for the other Wu Army officers and soldiers, they were also affected by this call from relatives. The weapons in their hands slowly lowered their hands, and their eyes were full of confusion. How great would it be if your relatives could be compensated with money and land like the people of Suzhou, and be called upon to lay down their weapons and submit to them like they did.
But the generals of the Wu army were anxious and angry at this time, and some of them shouted orders, telling their troops to immediately launch an offensive on the city head. But this time, the military orders were of no use. Almost no one dared to shoot an arrow at the city. Even if there were a few who wanted to take action, they were blocked by Pao Ze beside them. The city is full of relatives of his brothers. Once these people are really injured, the entire Wu army will inevitably split into chaos, and the consequences will only be more serious than now.
Pang Wanchun immediately understood the importance of this, and the look on his face changed several times, and then he quickly ordered: "Ming Jin withdraws the troops..." He could see that the morale of the entire army had now reached its lowest point. Even if he really ordered to attack the city, it would only be Just give some lives away.
"Is it really Sun Tu who is defending the city now? He is really powerful. He actually understands the strategy of attacking the enemy's heart first, and he actually uses such despicable methods against our Wu soldiers..." Pang Wanchun sighed softly, and said: By now, he was convinced that Suzhou would never be taken back. Even if the troops from behind arrived and attacked the city with a hundred thousand troops, the current Suzhou would not be captured in just a few days. And it won't be long before Song army reinforcements from Changshu and even Jinling will arrive.
Now, there is only one best choice before him, which is to abandon Suzhou and lead the army back south!